There is something reassuring about the latest atrocities committed by the Islamic State militants, whether a beheading video or this week’s protocols on how to abuse the women they take prisoner. These are obviously bad men, unsalvageable and inhuman. Many of the core fighters are foreigners – like a foreign virus – so by dealing with them militarily, so the theory goes, Canada and the rest of the U.S.-led coalition are finally applying the right medicine.
Outside Iraq, this contagion theory plays well because the Islamic State is so outlandish, like something out of a horror film.
But what if the metaphor is wrong? What if the Islamic State is not the problem but part of the solution – like a high fever caused by a powerful immune response fighting the virus?
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